1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the formation of thermoplastic parts and, in particular, to the formation of a protective removable element. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for forming a thermoplastic part from a thermoplastic sheet.
2. Background
Polymeric materials may be used in a variety of products including some aircraft interior parts. A polymeric material may take the form of a thermoplastic or thermoset material. A thermoplastic material may be a polymer that becomes pliable or moldable above a selected temperature and returns to a solid-state upon cooling. A thermoplastic material may be able to be repeatedly heated and cooled. A thermoset material may become hard when heated. A thermoset material may be irreversibly cured when heated.
Polymeric materials may be formed into parts using a variety of methods including extrusion, pultrusion, additive manufacturing, and molding. Forming parts using extrusion or pultrusion may limit the shapes of parts created. Further, extrusion or pultrusion may have undesirable tooling costs.
Forming parts from polymeric materials using additive manufacturing may result in parts having undesirable properties. For example, additive manufacturing may result in parts having discrete layers. Further, additive manufacturing techniques may limit the polymeric materials which may be used to form parts.
Molds used in molding polymeric materials may be created from metals using milling or other material removal processes. Molds may be formed from metals as metal molds may be used in molding polymeric materials multiple times without undesirable effects on the mold. However, creating metal molds may be undesirably expensive. Further, creating metal molds may require undesirable amounts of time. Yet further, storing metal molds may require undesirable amounts of space.
Accordingly, metal molds may be desirable for generating several similar polymeric parts. Further, cost per part of polymeric parts manufactured using metal molds may be decreased as the number of manufactured parts increases. However, forming a single unique part from polymeric materials may be undesirably expensive or time-consuming.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.